How to cook chilly crabs?

How do you cook whole crabs and how do you use the meat from the body of the crab?

• Answer:

  First of all, when it comes to obtaining live crab, whether you head down to the docks or seek it out closer to home, don't forget to bring along a cooler or really sturdy box. Once home, as long as they're kept well chilled (and out of melting ice, because they'll drown), Dungeness crabs will stay lively for many hours. As for cooking live crabs, my favorite Corvallis crab expert, Harry Daughters of Harry & Annette's Fish Market, highly recommends cleaning the crabs before cooking them. Cooking time is less, which means the meat will be even more sweet and tender. to clean your crabs before cooking, pry off the shells, break the crabs in half (they're killed instantly), shake or rinse out the viscera, pluck out the gills and immediately drop into a gallon or more (figure on at least 2 gallons for 4 crabs) of boiling salted water (4 heaping tablespoons of salt per gallon of water). After the water returns to a boil, cook for 10 to 12 minutes. Another approach: For those who don't want to spend that much time around a live crab - and who can blame you? - the preferred approach is to drop them while still kicking into that boiling salted water, then when the water returns to a boil, cook for 20 to 30 minutes, depending on their size. After cooking, clean the crab by removing the back shell, rinse out the viscera and pull off the gill filaments (these will be very obvious to you when you get around to doing it). Once the crabs have cooked, cool slightly in ice water until they can be handled, then pull all of the legs from the main body, and, using anything that can be viewed as a kitchen mallet - such as a metal ice cracker or meat tenderizer, or even a rolling pin - whack the crabs in several spots to loosen the shells for easy removal of the meat. Pile the cracked legs and bodies into big bowls, set them on the table, along with melted butter and fresh lemons, and a big ol' tossed green salad with a side of Louis dressing (recipe follows), and let friends and family have at it. Classic Louis dressing 1 cup mayonnaise 1/4 cup chili sauce (it's like ketchup, only spicier) 2 tablespoons finely chopped green or red sweet bell pepper 2 tablespoons finely chopped yellow onion 2 tablespoons chopped parsley 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce 1 teaspoon prepared horseradish 1 hard-cooked egg, finely chopped In a small bowl, stir together the mayonnaise and chili sauce. Add the peppers, onion, parsley, cayenne, Worcestershire, horseradish, and chopped egg. Blend this mixture thoroughly and then taste to determine if it needs additional chili sauce, Worcestershire sauce, or horseradish. Use immediately or cover and refrigerate for up to 1 week. If the dressing seems a bit thick, you can stir in 1 to 2 tablespoons of milk. Makes about 1 1/2 cups.